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TC6 storms to victory at BRCA round four

By mastering the mixed and constantly changing conditions Olly Jefferies took victory and TQ at round four of the BRCA national touring car series, in what has been a fairly barren season for the reigning champion this result is a real confidence boost for Olly and the rest of the AE team who worked together to stay on top of the constantly changing track conditions.

Olly got into his stride from the start finishing second in round one of qualifying on Saturday, he followed that up with a TQ run in round two and another second in the final leg of the day, track conditions varied between wet, drying and greasy during the day but small set up changes kept the TC6.1 right on the pace.

Two more goods by Olly on Sunday morning would see the Associated TC6.1 on pole for the A final ahead of Chris Grainger, Andy Moore and champion elect Elliott Harper. After struggling a little on the Saturday Alan Bickerstaff had a good two rounds on Sunday to join Olly in the modified A final, Alan had missed out on any pre event testing so was having to master the Aldershot track in tough changing conditions, but by the end of qualifying Alan was happy with his car.

Also having one of his best showings at a UK national was Chris Gunter; he would line up second on the grid for the 13.5 A final with his TC6.1, Ben Putt was once again in the 13.5 A final after five rounds of qualifying.

Leg one of the modified A final saw a buzzer to flag victory for Olly but leg two saw a DNF, so all down to leg three, third place was sufficient to give Olly the win on the day and possibly take his championship hopes to the last round, the opinion among the majority was that a win for Olly at Mendip could see the series go down to a tie break situation, so still a lot of work to do for Olly but he was in a similar situation this time last year heading in to the last round.

In the 13.5 A final Ben Putt put in a good overtaking moves, finishing fifth from eight on the grid.

“I was really pleased with my performance over the weekend, sometimes when the conditions are not perfect for everyone it’s an opportunity to take advantage of that, I felt I made the most of the track conditions while others struggled, at the BTCC event the week before I was the only front running driver who went out and practised when it was wet on Saturday, that running gave me a lot of track data which I was able to use to my advantage at the national, as for Mendip, well I went there on the back foot last year and turned it around on the day and all I can hope for is a strong performance again this year” Olly said.

The Mendip national takes place over the last weekend of September